Happy at Work

60 Simple Ways to Stay Engaged and Be Successful

Jim Donovan

• Publisher: New World Library
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781608682515
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Success

Even in a tight economy, job satisfaction isn't a luxury; fulfilled, happy employees are productive, innovative, and loyal. And workplace fulfillment spills over into happier families and better communities. Jim Donovan, a small-business owner, consultant, and speaker, has worked with employees and employers for twenty-five years. In that time he has tested and honed these shift-producing strategies on everything from managing time, making decisions, and marking milestones to breaking patterns, bouncing back, and becoming exceptional. Each tip's method and rationale are clearly explained. Real workplace vignettes demonstrate the benefits and results that can be gleaned from simple shifts and actions. These tools will empower you with the knowledge that no matter the circumstance, you can think, act, and feel in ways that create purpose, success, and, yes, happiness.

1.	Reward Yourself and Others

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Have you ever noticed how easily we criticize ourselves and others for making even the most minor mistakes? Most of us have no problem finding fault, especially with ourselves. In many cases, unfortunately, managers see criticism as a way to embarrasses people into performing better.

Verbally berating someone and expecting her to perform better is like hitting your computer with a hammer and expecting it to run better. It doesn’t work. I doubt that it ever did, but it certainly does not work with today’s more skilled workforce. And if you do this with the Millennial Generation, you’ll soon see your workforce walking out the door.

Managing by bossing people around was a popular practice back in the Industrial Age; however, we’ve learned over time that there are much more effective ways to manage people.

If you must criticize an employee’s performance, be sure to do it in private. Correcting someone’s behavior publicly not only can cause the person in question to suffer but can also have a negative effect on those within earshot. Criticizing someone while there are customers nearby, as I have witnessed happening several times in retail establishments, reflects poorly on the entire organization. The old adage “Praise people in public, correct them in private” still holds true today.

If you want to improve productivity and well-being in your company, become a “goodness finder.” Catch people doing things right and praise them for it. Organizations with large sales forces know the value of reward programs and use everything from books and gift cards to exotic trips as ways to motivate and reward their people for excellent performance.

It is equally important to motivate yourself in this way. When you do something really well or complete a task efficiently and on time, reward yourself. This could be anything from a simple cookie break for a small accomplishment to a weeklong vacation for accomplishing a major task.

Paying a simple compliment and saying “Good job” to someone goes a long way toward showing her that you recognize her accomplishments. And using personal rewards is a great way to help you overcome reluctance and embrace the task at hand. Focusing on the reward enables us to get through the work faster and with greater ease.

2.	Put Your Problems to Work for You

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In his book Illusions, Richard Bach wrote, “There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for us in its hands. We seek problems because we need their gifts.”

Whether or not we seek out problems is not nearly as important as how we handle them when they appear. A great technique I learned many years ago is to change the word problem to challenge. I realize this may seem like simply a matter of semantics, but hear me out.

Problems tend to be things we try to avoid, while challenges are things we step up to and fix. Making this seemingly insignificant change in vocabulary can have a big impact on how you deal with a situation.

If you view it, as Bach suggests, as having a gift for you or at least containing an opportunity within it, your challenge could be turned to your advantage. A challenge in the workplace, while representing an obstacle for some, can actually present you with an opportunity to showcase your talents. The next time a challenge presents itself, rather than trying to avoid it, welcome it. Ask yourself what you might do to turn it into an opportunity. Explore how you might best use it to your advantage.

A case in point is what happened when Domino’s Pizza asked their customers how they liked their pizza. What they learned was that people didn’t like it; they thought it was terrible and told the company so, by the thousands.

This must have hurt the folks at Domino’s, but rather than bury their heads in the sand, as some companies do, they chose to embrace it. They made major changes to their product line and, from all indications, have transformed the company and won back customers with their improved pizza.

Making necessary changes can be difficult for many companies, as I’m sure it was for Domino’s, but it pays off. When you and your team are faced with what appears to be a problem, try approaching it differently. Look at it as a challenge. Ask a better question. We’ll explore the idea of powerful questions in chapter 15, but for now simply change the way you typically handle those less-than-desirable occurrences at work and, for that matter, in the rest of your life.

3.	Break Your Patterns

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It always amazes me how little people know about their company, coworkers, or the world around them. Many otherwise intelligent people become stuck in the rut of their daily lives, doing the same things each day, driving the same route to work, eating the same breakfast, and so on, rarely deviating from their patterns. In fact, we are all most likely to frequent the same five to ten restaurants, even though many communities have fifty or more.

We tend to eat the same five or six vegetables, even though there are more than ten times that to choose from. We drive the same roads to and from work, school, and home, hang out with the same friends, and engage in the same social events. We listen to the same music, watch the same TV shows, and on and on. It’s no wonder people are bored.

If you want to have a happier, more interesting life at work and at home, start breaking your patterns. An added benefit is that you will be stimulating your creativity as a result. By changing your everyday patterns and habitual processes, you will be creating new neural connections in your brain.

Simply changing your route to and from work will expose you to new visual and auditory stimuli. As you drive, ride, or walk a new route, you will see things you have never noticed before. This is why so many creative people, Steven Spielberg among them, go for long drives in their cars to stimulate ideas.

Do you take the same actions in your work or business each day? Most of us follow certain routines, and while there is nothing wrong with this, doing so can stifle our creativity and prevent us from major breakthroughs. What could you do to shake up your routine? Could you change some of your daily actions? For example, would changing the way you handle email enable you to take a new action or complete a more urgent task? I found myself answering my email first thing in the morning, as though the sender was sitting there at 6:00 AM, waiting for my answer. This habit prevented me from doing something more important.

Scheduling a specific time to answer my email has freed up my early-morning time for writing, the most important component of my work. Morning is the time I write best, since my mind is still clear and calm after my morning meditation and quiet time. Delaying email until later in the morning has also provided me with the opportunity to get back to my morning exercise, another task that is critical to my well-being.

When I go out to do errands by car, if possible I follow a different route to my destination each time. Over time, I have found this time to be one of my best opportunities for brainstorming ideas. I can capture any new ideas I have in the car by dictating them into my iPhone.

The more you can shake up your routines, the more you will stimulate your creative mind. If you want to try an interesting experiment, when you’re getting dressed in the morning put your pants on the opposite way from how you usually do it: if you usually place your right leg in first, this time put your left leg in first. Be sure to stand where you can sit quickly since this may well cause you to lose your balance — that is how strongly we are conditioned to our daily routines.

When you take a shower, wash your feet first instead of your face and notice how strange it feels. Take surface roads instead of the freeway next time you have to drive, and see how that feels.

The more you take advantage of opportunities to stimulate your mind, the more you will find new creative ideas popping into your head and the more likely you will be to produce breakthrough results.

4.	Become Curious

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If you want to be happier both at work and in your personal life, cultivate your curiosity. Not only will learning about the world and people around you make your job more interesting, but it will also increase your value to the company. As executive coach Jay Abraham put it, “Discovery is the fuel of competitive advantage.”

The more you know about your company and its products and services, the more effectively and efficiently you will perform your work. This will lead to increased productivity and perhaps to a better position within the organization eventually. By cultivating your curiosity, you will be more engaged with your work and as a result feel like a more integral part of the organization.

Do you know the history of your company? Do you know who the CEO is or who the top management are? Depending on the size of your organization, these people may be across the corridor or across the globe. Even if they are far-flung, you can still learn about them. Many people I’ve met, especially in large organizations, do not even know the name of the chief executive.

Similarly, depending on the length of time your company has been in existence, there may be a rich or fascinating story behind it. It astonishes me how little most people know about the company they spend a third of their lives working for.

If you want to be happier and more successful in your career, learn what you can about your company. Make a point of learning something about the top management. If at all possible, meet the key executives. I realize that this may sound crazy, especially if you are in an entry-level position, but I assure you, you will benefit from the experience. You may be surprised how accessible and friendly the top people are. On top of that, I guarantee that your CEO will be impressed that you had the initiative to seek her out. This could be a huge help to your career.

By learning about and studying the history of your company, especially those who have been in the business for a few decades or more, you will learn how vital your role is and gain appreciation for what it took to build your company.

The result of this is that you will be happier and, according to most studies, your performance will increase. Since performance leads to advancement, expressing your natural curiosity will have a positive impact not only on your mood but on your career as well.

If you work for a large organization you may not have any idea about what the company’s founder faced in the early days of trying to grow the business. For example, how many employees of the Ford Motor Company know that Henry Ford probably would not have built the Model T were it not for his wife’s involvement. According to the story, as told by Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich), Ford...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword by Steve Rizzo
• Introduction
• 1. Reward Yourself and Others
• 2. Put Your Problems to Work for You
• 3. Break Your Patterns
• 4. Become Curious
• 5. Know Your Purpose
• 6. Step into the Career of Your Dreams
• 7. Make Your Dreams Come True
• 8. Become a Goal Setter
• 9. Don’t Let Your Goals Scare You
• 10. Establish Milestones and Actions
• 11. Take Only Inspired Action
• 12. Align with Your Values
• 13. Discover Your Rules
• 14. Learn to Manage Your Time
• 15. Ask a Bigger Question
• 16. Arrive at Work Early
• 17. Master Your Energy
• 18. Commit to Lifelong Learning
• 19. Become a Value Finder
• 20. Don’t Be Afraid to Speak Your Mind
• 21. Dress for Success
• 22. Don’t Wait to Be Told What to Do
• 23. Focus on What Is Working
• 24. Learn to Deal with Difficult People
• 25. Make Decisions Quickly
• 26. Get in Motion
• 27. Gauge Your Happiness
• 28. Be Exceptional
• 29. Drink Water
• 30. Don’t Gossip
• 31. Take Ownership of Your Work
• 32. Cultivate Good Habits
• 33. Identify Your Beliefs
• 34. Make Personal Development Part of Your Daily Routine
• 35. Remember That This Too Shall Pass
• 36. Tell a Different Story
• 37. Model the Success You Desire
• 38. Define Your Success
• 39. Don’t Get Derailed
• 40. Begin Now
• 41. Let Go
• 42. Put the Excitement Back in Your Job
• 43. Remove the Obstacles Blocking Your Success
• 44. Be a Salesperson
• 45. Bounce Back
• 46. Think Like an Owner Even If You’re Not One
• 47. Promote Your Company
• 48. Make Dull Tasks Fun
• 49. Be Authentically You
• 50. Practice Gratitude
• 51. Let Your Feelings Be the Guide
• 52. Listen to Music
• 53. See the Big Picture
• 54. Develop Meaningful Friendships at Work
• 55. State Your Intentions
• 56. Avoid Energy Zappers
• 57. Take Charge of Your Emotions
• 58. Remember That Money Is a Measure of Your Service
• 59. Live in the Present
• 60. Get Up and Start Moving
• Conclusion
• About the Author